Fuzhou Open | 22 - 27 April 2014

Press release

Chinese beach volleyball stars answer fan questions

Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi placed third at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Fuzhou Open

Fuzhou, China,
April 28, 2014 – New Chinese beach volleyball partners Xue Chen and
Xia Xinyi made great strides at the first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour of
the season, winning bronze at the Fuzhou Open and proving they’re a team to
watch this season.

To get to
know Chen, the 2013 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Champion, and her new
17-year-old partner, Xinyi, the FIVB hosted a Q&A with the home-team at
Fuzhou, with questions collected from fans on Facebook
and Chinese social media sites Sina
Weibo and Tencent Weibo.

Q:What’s your hobby?

Xue Chen: I like music, movies and
books. Because training is very tiring, I prefer not to hang out.

Q:What do you usually do right before the games?

Xue Chen: I
usually imagine in my mind all the different situations and difficulties that
might happen during the game. When I feel extremely nervous, I like chewing gum
while doing stretching exercises.

Q: Can you talk about your new partner Xia Xinyi with us?

Xue Chen: I think
that it’s not easy for her to make it. She is much younger than I am. She is
the youngest player in the FIVB Open. But she is making a lot of improvements.
In only very few years, she has to face the challenge of the Olympic Games in
Rio. It’s a great chance for her to practice, but it’s also huge pressure on
her.

Q:During the Fuzhou Open, the weather was not
very ideal. Did the weather condition influence on your performance in the
games?

Xue Chen: To us,
we’ve experienced a lot of different weather situations, like the games on
windy days and rainy days. If it’s not storming, we will still play the games.
So, this time, the weather was still fine for us.

Q:Compared to the games on sunny days, if
it’s raining, will you adjust your technique or strategy for the games?

Xue Chen: On a
rainy day, the volleyball becomes heavier and slippery. So when serving, we usually
raise the hitting point. Meanwhile, we need to lower bodies to catch the ball,
because it gets heavier. This is different from how we usually play. If it’s on
a windy day, we prefer to hit the ball lower, in this way that we can control
it easily.

Q: Do you have confidence to reach the champion of the Olympic
Games in Rio?

Xia Xinyi: Yes, I’m
confident. At this moment, my individual capability is still not good enough,
but I’m always improve and perfect myself.

Q:What do you like doing when there’s no game?

Xia Xinyi: Watching
movies or listening to music.

Q?The beach
volleyball games are usually going on in the big sun. Do you have any special
protective measures?

Xia Xinyi: I just put on
some sun cream.

Q: In each beach volleyball team, there’re only two players,
does it mean that the difficulty is much higher than the indoor volleyball
games?

Xia Xinyi: I think that
the beach volleyball games have higher requirement on players’ individual
capabilities than the indoor volleyball games.

Xue Chen: The beach
volleyball games are more challenging. The players must be very decisive.

More press releases

07.05.2014 17:00:18USA's Kerri Walsh and April Ross answer fan questions
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 7, 2014 – The first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event of the year kicked off with a bang in Fuzhou, China, with a thri...
More...

28.04.2014 16:48:47Ross and Walsh "know exactly what is required" - Natalie Cook
Lausanne, Switzerland, April 28, 2014 – Australian beach volleyball legend Natalie Cook looks back at the World Tour's first stop this year at the Fuz...
More...